The Ardoon King Read online

  Chapter 57: Abandoned Realities

  “It’s a trick. You’ve been lured away from your world.”

  Ben laughed and shook his head. “You got me. Lilian’s going to pay for this.” He lifted his glass of champagne to his lips, intending to down the contents. The glass was gone. So was the museum. So was everything, except Ridley.

  “Ben, the Sillum intends to isolate you.”

  The museum flashed back into existence, as did Ben’s champagne.

  Ridley raised a hand. “No. Stay with me.”

  The museum vanished again.

  Ben put his hands to his head. It hurt. “What’s going on?”

  “You’re being led through the shells, Ben. Abandoned and unused realities. He intends to trap you in one.”

  Suddenly, instantly, Ben remembered.

  Everything. “What…”

  “It’s all just shells, nephew. They’re real but devoid of sentience. They are merely physical placeholders.”

  “Dreams,” mumbled Ben.

  “No. They’re as real as the reality you and I come from. They are just unoccupied. Like cars without drivers. Sentience is exceedingly rare, Ben. So rare that you cannot imagine it. Inversely, the number of shells is unimaginably huge. Of necessity, there are enough of these shells to populate every possible reality. Together they constitute the maze through which sentience flows.”

  “No, you’re wrong,” said Ben, not wanting to believe what he was being told. It was like being told someone he loved had been restored to life, only to be put back into the ground. “Send me back.”

  “There,” said Ridley. “See how our opponent has tempted you? See how enticing the realities are that he has shown you? You could spend a lifetime in any of them, willing yourself to forget that the people you love cannot love you back. Not knowing that their smiles and laughs are nothing but fake paintings, matching the reality of sentient beings stroke for stroke.

  “You could go back now, if you wanted. To any of them. The Sillum cannot send you anywhere, Ben. Neither can I. You have the inherent ability to travel the realities on your own. The Empyrean grants you that ability. It allows you to see the hidden paths. Many paths lead to blissful ignorance; realms in which you can convince yourself that the people around you are more than biological robots. Those paths are always open to you. They are the paths the Sillum wants you to take. It is a trap, Ben. You are needed in the real world. The world where those you love can love you back.”

  Ben extended his hands to his sides, palms up, his face wet with tears. “How can I know what is real?” Grasping for ethereal straws, he said, “Maybe Steepleguard is fantasy. If it’s all fantasy, I don’t want the one I have! The one you forced on me! I want-”

  “You want reality, Ben. You don’t want to be surrounded by zombies.”

  “Maybe I already am! Maybe Fiela, and Lilian, and-”

  “They are real, Ben. At Steepleguard. They have minds, just as you do.”

  “But how can I know? Even if you’re right, I could be lured into a fake Steepleguard where everything seems perfectly normal! How can I know that the world I occupy is real? Populated by real minds? Sentient beings?”

  “The Empyrean will let you know. Use it. Whenever you are in doubt, use it.”

  “Why, though? What good will that-”

  Then Ben understood.

  Ridley nodded. “It won’t work on a mindless being.”

  Ben closed his eyes and sighed. “It’s real, then.”

  “Yes, your home is real. Steepleguard is real. The one you came from, at least.”

  Ben was quiet for a very long time. His senses slowly returned to him. His memories of the other realities dimmed like spent dreams.

  He said, “I thought that I’d died and gone to heaven.”

  “Not just yet, I’m afraid.”

  “I’m not dead?”

  “Not quite. It is a very near thing, though. Best if you wake up, now, and put that brain of yours to work. If you die, he will have you. He will take you to something approaching heaven. Your heaven. There you’ll stay, until he comes back for you.”

  “What then?”

  Ridley frowned. “Don’t die, Ben.”